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Friday, May 26, 2006

My Desert Island Discs

David Cameron has done it, so has Iain Dale, so without further ado here are my eight Desert Island Discs - with not a Benny Hill novelty record or piece of aspirational M People rubbish in sight!

1. 101 Eastbound - Fourplay. Smooth jazz has been the music of choice in the Linford household for the past few years, perhaps because my wife got fed-up with me listening to The Smiths and Prefab Sprout all the time. But I needed no musical re-education to get into this wondrous, uplifting piece of jazz funk. Whenever we hear it, it seems that God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.

2. Piano Concerto in C Minor - Sergey Rachmaninov. Rach 2 is, quite simply, the most romantic piece of music ever written. Forget the fact that Barry Manilow ripped off the tune of the 2nd Movement for "All By My Self," and immerse yourself in those luscious chord sequences and impassioned climaxes.

3. I Trawl the Megahertz - Paddy McAloon. Paddy is of course best known for his work with Prefab Sprout, but this solo effort released in 2003 is his masterpiece. A 22-minute voiceover set against an orchestral theme, it builds into a musical poem which is astonishing in its sheer breadth of imagination - full lyrics here.

4. Adagio - Samuel Barber. This will forever be associated in my mind with the 2001 Last Night of the Proms when, in the wake of 9/11, American conductor Leonard Slatkin dispensed with all the usual nationalistic rubbish and played this instead. "This is our music of grief," he explained. Totally moving.

5. Thieves Like Us - New Order. There are any number of things I could have chosen from my student days in the 1980s when most of my musical tastes were formed, but this stands out for its sheer symphonic sweep and immensity. The lyrics - something about the air supporting eagles - are best forgotten though.

6. Blood on the Rooftops - Genesis. A unique song-writing collabration between Phil Collins and the great Steve Hackett, who sadly left the band the shortly afterwards, this pips "Supper's Ready" as my favourite Genesis track. Perfectly captures the spiritual hangover of the 1970s, "dark and grey...the Wednesday Play."

7. Come Together - Primal Scream (Album Version). An extended remix featuring a voiceover from Martin Luther King. When the long instrumental introduction finally cranks up and the full works kick in, it's supposed to mirrror the rush of E - hence "Come Together" - but when the music's this good, who needs the drugs?

8. "I Cannot Tell...." - Londonderry Air. Set to the tune of "Danny Boy," "I cannot tell, how he whom angels worship" is my favourite hymn. We had it sung at our wedding in 2001 and, one day, it will be sung again at my funeral, whenever that is. I hope it raises the roof.

Book: The Bible. No contest here - as the Westminster Confession says, this contains all that is necessary for salvation.

Luxury Item: My Tent. Apart from the fact that I might need it from time to time, most of my happiest memories are mixed up with it and if I ever was stranded on a desert island, I could close my eyes and imagine I was back in my favourite place, the Lake District.

8 comments:

I have teenage boys and I've never heard of Primal Sprout? What year were they around. But I do love Adagios, though I have never heard the Samuel Barber version, is it available from Samuel? I often buy music which celebrities I admire have recommended from Desert Island Discs. I believe they are looking for a new presenter, maybe you could try, or introduce a BBC Derbyshire version for your local radio.

Prefab Sprout were around in the 80s and 90s. Their debut album Swoon (1984) was followed by Steve McQueen (1985), From Langley Park to Memphis (1988), Protest Songs (1989) and Jordan, The Comeback (1990). After a long break they came back in 1997 with Andromeda Heights.

All these LPs are worth a listen but Steve McQueen is the best, although if you're into Gershwin and/or Americana you'll love Langley Park to Memphis.

Matt - you're quite right about the Bible. In which case I guess I would choose Watership Down, by Richard Adams which is ostensibly about rabbits but, like the Bible, is really about the triumph of good over evil.

It's funny how lefties that I know assumed that DC's choice was a spin doctor/focus group inspired choice designed to touch buttons.

DC and I are about the same age and it is clear that a lot of the music that I was listening to as I grew up was making its way to his ears too.

It seems some people are desperately trying to find ways of knocking him down. Did you see how much coverage was given to the fact that Thom York said that they hadn't played Fake Plastic Trees specifically at DC's request?

I can claim a little bit of innovation as I have a top ten list on my site for years, although I have recently given it more prominence.

"He saw politics very much like Trollope, as the interplay of personalities seeking preferment, rather than, like me, as a conflict of principles and programmes about social and economic change."

Denis Healey, writing about Roy Jenkins in "The Time of My Life."

"I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with a series of far-fetched resolutions, and these are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code. And you go through the years sticking to that, outdated, misplaced, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council, a Labour council, hiring taxis to scuttle round the city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers. I'll tell you - and you'll listen - you can't play politics with people's jobs and with people's homes and with people's services."

Neil Kinnock, Bournemouth 1985

"But the most eloquent message concerns the Blair government. It must be right at all times. Above all, the integrity of the leader can never be challenged. He never did hype up intelligence. He didn't take Britain to war on any other than the stated terms. Any suggestion of half-truth, or disguised intention, or concealed Bushite promises is the most disgraceful imaginable charge that deserves a state response that knows no limit.

"That's how a sideshow came to take over national life. Now it seems to have taken a wretched, guiltless man's life with it. Such is the dynamic that can be unleashed by a leader who believes his own reputation to be the core value his country must defend."

Hugo Young, on the death of Dr David Kelly, 2003

"The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life."